How do you find out Uni entry requirements?

[mloo]

Sorry, am foreign. I don't know how to do this.
Ds probably wants to study computer science at university (probably England). I found a league table of computing degrees and from that I could find individual Uni departments and some of them had clear specifics about what they wanted from applicants (e.g. at least B in maths A-level + 2 other A-levels).

Is that the right procedure, to go to each and every individual website? So I'll need to make a big list for myself (there's no centralised website comparing entry requirements?) Some Uni dept websites weren't clear and I imagine I'd have to phone up. Also, there are ICT type diplomas offered at FE colleges (only option at our nearest FE College) which some Unis list as acceptable for applicants instead of 3xA-levels. I want to know if, for getting onto a Uni computing course, the ICT diploma is frowned on or just as widely accepted as 3xA-levels. How would I figure that out?

Thx in advance.

Oh as for apprenticeship, I know Cisco does them. But they don't lead to developer jobs within Cisco.

Current company (in telecom) also has a couple of apprentice. They are in testing.

The localish apprenticeship (18 miles away) pays £100/week. So that salary is doable to pay for a flatshare if not in most expensive areas & we can add in £200/month (?) I suppose for living/travel costs, plus pay for DS to travel back to see us sometimes. Do people really send their 16yos off to other parts of the country for weeks or months at a time to do apprenticeships & share flats with strangers? Wow. I guess we'll see if DS is that resilient.

I guess I could find more local ICT companies & see what apprenticeships they might offer, too. Would it be crazy to (one day in distant future) cold-call any of these companies and ask about volunteer work/work experience placements or are work placements always handled thru schools/FE colleges? The friend in games industry advised DS to write his own aps or build his own portfolio of clever code that he could show off, too.

I think apprenticeship then has to be local. At £100/week you can't afford to leave home. I would imagine then summer placements for university students pays more. If not, then it's important to pick a university in an area which has high employment. Then you can work for the summer placements in the same or nearby town.

We have a young apprentice in the office and he commutes daily from the other side of oxford to our newbury office. He's 17. But I won't be comfortable for a 16 year old to live away from home. I've met a lot more summer placements.

Your friend is right about the portfolio. Even for summer placements, that will make your son stand out. I believe also gaming industry has a younger staff profile? It seems more attractive to young people than business computing. (I was in the media division and now in telecoms. It's not glamorous. It's the business/server application kind of thing).

For summer placements I mean university students who work here for the summer. A lot of them return for every summer. You can see how it's an excellent way to build up a CV for when he graduates, even if the company doesn't have a graduate place for him.

mloo I just checked oxford to newbury is actually 27.9 miles on the A34. However there are frequent trains between the two towns (though with one change). I assume you must be in an area with much worse public transport?

mmm.. I'm increasingly unimpressed by Apprenticeships. Even in Cambridge (Silicon Glen) there are only 6 ICT-sector listed, paying £150/wk typically. Can't see that being a living wage there, either. Cambridge is 1.5+ hours away by train, 3 month season child train ticket is £750, so about half the salary, and £1500 for 3 month adult season ticket.

I have a friend who moved half way across country to get her same-age son engineering-training opportunities, I understand better why now.

He's only 13 you don't have to map out the next ten years you know! I'm a bit worried you're seeing university as the only route forward which it probably isn't for a non-academic child, which is why I suggested an apprenticeship. He could just to go FE college and do some vocational qualification then look for an entry level job, while making his CV look good through relevant work experience and creating apps.

If you insist on mapping out the next few years right now some proper careers guidance, perhaps with some sort of testing of his aptitudes might be an idea. You'd probably have to pay though as sadly careers advice in schools has all but disappeared.

Ahem "Cambridge (Silicon Glen)"

• Silicon Glen is in Scotland - it is Silicon Fen around Cambridge!

I have similar concern as titchy too. There are a lot of jobs in IT that do not require a degree. Not everyone is a developer (which a computer science degree is best for). I mean what's the percentage of the IT workforce that are actually developers? Is it even 25%?

Also isn't it only 1/4 of school leavers have degrees?

By the way, I don't think IT is well paid. That could explain the low wage you see in apprenticeships.

Those interested in money goes into banking in the city. Even the ones with computer science degrees. (Heard from a university lecturer friend).

Statistics relating to IT and Computer Science degrees are often grouped together despite them being quite different subjects. Employment and salary for Comp Sci seemed very respectable when we researched it. (RG Uni courses) Comp Sci is basically maths after all.

Computing is also usually different to computer science. It's all very confusing .